Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your blessings outnumber

the shamrocks that grow,

And may trouble avoid you

wherever you go!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Ah, St. Paddy's Day....I look forward to it every year because my Mom corns her own brisket and it is delish!!!

Anyway...I've been avoiding posting my latest floral class creation because I was missing one flower and it wasn't complete without it. I even managed to go into Michael's and buy just one stem in order to finish it up. (Okay, I fibbed-2 stems-I couldn't decide which one would match, so I bought them both.) So, here you have it...my grapevine wreath, now gracing our front door! Mostly I'm proud of myself for using pink stems. Pink and I do not get along very well. I find it hard to incorporate into my creations.

And finally I can share with you the commissioned piece I mentioned in a post way back in early February. I finally managed to find a block of time to just sit down and create it. At one point, about 3 weeks ago, I had started working on it from a sketch I had made of what I thought it should look like. Bad idea. I hated it so much that I ripped it apart. Today, I just went with the creative muse that was wafting around the room and created the design shown here. The future owner had asked for a new Spring centerpiece for her dining room table, done in blues & mauves, with oriental accents. I used mauve & blue hydrangeas, deep mauve flowers (no idea what those are but the color was perfect), lotus blossoms, willow twigs, white cherry blossoms and bamboo leaves. I wish the picture had turned out better because you can't see the depth and dimension in this piece at all. :(

In other crafty news, I'm working on a painted pillar candle holder that is made from a 6-inch terra cotta rose pot and a 4-inch matching saucer. I saw the design on the cover of Quick & Easy Painting magazine and of course said, "I can make that!" Stay tuned for the finished product.... I'm about half way finished already!

Coca-Cola: Symbol of Free West!

Realizing that recently there has been a distinct lack of gratuitous "fur baby" photos of the Divine Felines, I present you with Hercules during his latest modeling gig for Coca-Cola! (as if....LOL)

My handsome Snowshoe baby is 11 months old now and a completely delightful companion... he is such a silly boy! Whenever I open a new Coke 12-pack, he paces around & meows until I cut out both ends. Then he dives right in and stays there...he'll even let me pick the box up in that center finger slot and carry him around. He never budges. I don't know what the big attraction is. His other favorite game is batting ping pong or whiffle balls around in the bathtub. Of course, the other 2 cats show up to watch and eventually we wind up with 3 cats whizzing around the bathtub! Quite a sight, let me tell ya!

Well, I'm off to work on my knitting skills...I finally got around to learning how to purl. Next up is making ribbing and let me tell ya, it ain't gonna be pretty! At least not for a few more days :) This is an awful lot of craft agony to endure just to make a pretty pillow I found in a book... Is this what they meant by "no pain, no gain??" Sheesh!

And then there were FRONDS!

Tuesdays are fast becoming my favorite day of the week! Unfortunately, there are only 2 more of my floral design classes left to go....waaaaaaaaaah!!!! Going forward, I guess I'll just have to set aside Tuesday nights strictly for frondy fun. Hey! That's not a bad idea at all!

Tonight was foliage night and I came up with this kooky arrangement. It's hard to tell what's going on from the picture, but I used 3 kinds of ferns (I adore ferns!), poppy pods, grape leaves and some marvelous bendy grapevine (if you look closely, you'll see the dark coils meandering around). Since my approach last week worked so well, I went zipping through my craft room quickly again and made quick stem selections. I mentioned this approach to the teacher and he said it's really the best way to do it because the designs flow better and are not so cookie cutter-ish or constructed. The trick is to make it all look like it grew that way naturally! Did I mention that I'm having entirely too much fun??? Is it next Tuesday yet?? LOL

Pink & Brown Goodness

Oh stop, wait a minute Mr. Postman......

My pink & brown goodie box arrived Friday, full of swappy goodness! My buddy was Claire over at Little Lovelies and she took good care of me :) I love, Love, LOVE the thrifted pink vase! Ever so cute! On the right is a "Twelve Days of Christmas" quilling kit she thrifted and although it's not pink or brown, I had told Claire I wanted to try quilling. She must be clairvoyant (no pun intended LOL) to send me that kit now... it will take me all year to make the ornaments for next Christmas! She also sent a huge pink & brown coffee mug...perfect as I'm a java junkie...lots of ribbon, chocolate, hair clips, scrapbooking embellishments, crafty cupcakes, a Valentine's heart garland, notecards and 2 of her adorable heart button ornaments! And she snuck some blue stuff in too...fabric with a star print and lots of buttons and other embellishments. Claire, I love my stuff! Thank you!!!!!!!!

On the left is a snap of what I sent to Claire. Beads, embroidery floss, hot chocolate, dark chocolate, balsam fir scented mug mats & hot pads, rubber duckies for her 2 sweet munchkins, a bookmark, a notepad, and a thrifted ceramic watering can.

This was my very first swap and I have to admit that I was nervous about it...wondering if I found and made the right stuff. In the end, I really enjoyed participating in this swap and seeing all the great things that everyone sent over at the Pink & Brown Flickr site! We are all marvelously talented!!!!!!